Ezekiel 21:14
Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
Thou, therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together,.... As being in the greatest agony for what is coming upon thy people: or "strike hand to hand" {y}; clap them together, as encouraging the enemy with his drawn, sharp, and glittering sword, to make use of it, and do execution with it:
and let the sword be doubled the third time; some think this has reference to the three captivities of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah: others to the threefold calamity in Zedekiah's time; the first, the taking of him; the second, the taking of the city; the third, the carrying captive the residue along with Gedaliah: or to the three times the Chaldeans came against Jerusalem, after this prophecy; first with Nebuchadnezzar, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and took him and the city; then with Nebuzaradan, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and burnt the city and temple; and again in the twenty third of Nebuchadnezzar, and carried away the remnant of the people, Jeremiah 52:5:
the sword of the slain: by which many should be slain:
it is the sword of the great men that are slain: of the sons of the kings, and of the princes and nobles of the land:
which entereth into their privy chambers; where they should endeavour to hide themselves from it, but in vain, none should escape; their privy chambers could not secrete nor secure them: or "which remains with them"; as that which is laid up, and reserved in a privy chamber, as De Dieu, from the use of the word in the Ethiopic language, renders it.
{y} Pk la Pk Khw "percute manum ad manum", Pagninus, Polanus; "volum ad volam"; Montanus; "feri manum ad manum", Starckius.